[BNM] UI Mockups / Wireframes

[Dan Eastwell]

I agree with Andy's point here: I always find a confusion between design 
mockups and wireframes, which I've always taken to mean a visual 'what 
it does' of web design (as opposed to the text-based 'what it does' of 
the functional spec), not a 'what it looks like' or a 'how it works'.

http://www.grokdotcom.com/index7-01-01.htm

For creating mockups, just basic 'where it goes on the page' I'd use 
Xara, it's very intuitive and allows changing across layers without the 
hassle of layer management. You just ctrl click all the bits you want as 
you see them on the page, or rubberband an area of the screen: all the 
layers are selected.

I'd also suggest 'greyboxing' to start off with, as suggested in the 
articles I've delicioused here:

http://del.icio.us/daneastwell/prototyping

HTH,

Dan.

Andy Budd wrote:

>>Hi BNM,
>>
>>To date, when developing web page layout's/UI's I've used either
>>Illustrator, or (especially if working with forms) just pulled them
>>around in DreamWeaver or similar, then when I'm happy and it's agreed
>>built the page/form from scratch by hand.
>>
>>Is there a better way?
>>    
>>
>
>Are you actually talking about Wireframes here, or design? The reason  
>I ask is that generally speaking, wireframes should just contain the  
>bare-bones information and shouldn't include layout.
>
>For design I personally use Photoshop and occasionally Illustrator.
>
>For Wireframing I've used Freehand, Visio and OmniGraffle. However at  
>Clearleft we've taken to creating XHTML/CSS wireframes as the  
>experience is much closer to the final product. However it is time  
>consuming which defeats the purpose somewhat. If you're looking for  
>speed, I've met several people that wireframe either in PowerPoint or  
>Flash. Seems a bit grubby, but I imagine it's quick!
>
>  
>

-- 
Daniel Eastwell

http://www.thoughtballoon.co.uk



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